Nick_Parker Posted June 7, 2009 Posted June 7, 2009 Sorry if the topic is a bit ambiguous, but I have 2 questions Our main fileserver (Server 2003) is failing and so I am about to move all the home folders onto another storageserver (Server 2008). Moving them isn't the problem, changing the home folder path is also fine, the issue I'm worried about is the 60+ users with laptops who use offline files. I know I'm supposed to use some "Client-Side Caching Command-Line Options (CSCCMD)" Tool to redirect their offline files to the new server but... Do I do this before or after I move the home folders? Should I wait for them to log on, sychronize and then do it? Whats the best way to go about this so as cause as little disruption as possible? Secondly, While looking through the lists of staff folders that I'm going to need to move, I noticed 3 of them are called "Documents" instead of their username (like all the others) - It's all the users who use or have used Vista. Is there anyway to stop this happening as it'll get confusing if more people start moving to Vista and I suddenly have a folder full of folders named "Documents"... Thanks guys, appreciate any suggestions you can give me.
Ric_ Posted June 7, 2009 Posted June 7, 2009 I don't know about your mysterious documents folders but I do know that the CSCCMD has to be run after you move the folders. It works very well... it's just a PITA because it works best if you do it manually on each client. 1
Nick_Parker Posted June 7, 2009 Author Posted June 7, 2009 I'm thinking I might move the folders over night, and then put a: csccmd.exe /moveshare:\\machineA\shareA \\machineB\shareB Into the logon script, that shouldn't have any negative effects on users who don't use offline files should it?
Michael Posted June 7, 2009 Posted June 7, 2009 This article will help you, but yes that command looks correct. Do I do this before or after I move the home folders? It's a good question. I would say (thinking logically) you should move the home directories first and then input that command to move the cache users have. It might be advisable to leave shares active on both servers. Just move user data and adjust their home directory in AD to point to the new location. Once the command is run, you should be able to delete their old home directories on the failing server. Please note I haven't tested this procedure/theory and I am only speculating. I would advise you test with a dummy user before trying it. that shouldn't have any negative effects on users who don't use offline files should it? If other users have Offline Files disabled by GPO then I would guess it would be skipped/ignored. As for the 'Documents' and Vista problem I am unsure about that but I agree with you, it would make managing them a little difficult. One of the many reasons I don't use Vista, sorry
SteveT Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 Secondly, While looking through the lists of staff folders that I'm going to need to move, I noticed 3 of them are called "Documents" instead of their username (like all the others) - It's all the users who use or have used Vista. Is there anyway to stop this happening as it'll get confusing if more people start moving to Vista and I suddenly have a folder full of folders named "Documents"... Sorry, but it's a feature of Vista, folder structures are different to XP and previous. This is one of the main reasons take up of Vista in the enterprise has been so slow (never mind the hardware issues!!!). Most downgrade Vista to XP in a Networked environment until they're ready to upgrade all to Vista!!
Nick_Parker Posted June 8, 2009 Author Posted June 8, 2009 X:\>csccmd.exe /MoveShare:"\\Fileserver\Staff$\nparker" "\\StorageServer\Staff Folders\nparker" System error 2 has occurred. The system cannot find the file specified. This is what I keep getting... The "FileServer" is gone and is completely offline The "StorageServer" share is setup and ready and connectable.
Nick_Parker Posted June 8, 2009 Author Posted June 8, 2009 X:\>csccmd.exe /Moveshare:\\Fileserver\Staff$ "\\StorageServer\Staff Folders" The command completed successfully. This seems to work but Synchronization still looks for "\\Fileserver\Staff$"
Ric_ Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 X:\>csccmd.exe /MoveShare:"\\Fileserver\Staff$\nparker" "\\StorageServer\Staff Folders\nparker" System error 2 has occurred. The system cannot find the file specified. This is what I keep getting... The "FileServer" is gone and is completely offline The "StorageServer" share is setup and ready and connectable. Is this on a machine that does not have fileserver share available offline?
Nick_Parker Posted June 8, 2009 Author Posted June 8, 2009 Ric_, they all see FileServer as offline because the machine is physically dead and not connected to the network. Attached is a screenshot of what happens when I run that CSCMD file with the shares instead of the user folders, it all seems to complete successfully after a minute, but then Synchronization still keeps pointing to the "FileServer"
Ric_ Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 I just realised where you are going wrong... you shouldn't put the folder part in - Windows works it out. The way Windows sees the offline files, it only considers the share name. If you unplug your machine from a network and browse the root of the share, only the offline folders will be visible - everything else disappears. The command you need is csccmd /moveshare:\\fileserver1\share1 \\fileserver2\share2 1
Nick_Parker Posted June 8, 2009 Author Posted June 8, 2009 Thanks Ric_, after much swearing, I'd figured that out, but if you look at the picture I attached in the above post, that command runs and completes correctly, but it doesn't seem to change the paths and it still tries to Sync with the FileServer.
browolf Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 Secondly, While looking through the lists of staff folders that I'm going to need to move, I noticed 3 of them are called "Documents" instead of their username (like all the others) - It's all the users who use or have used Vista. ive got some staff userareas on the server that have changed their name to documents. 18 of them. its odd. cos we dont have vista anywhere.
SYNACK Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 (edited) The "Documents" folder issue is to do with the desktop.ini file in the root of each documents directory. There are two ways around this, neither of which I have had the time to automate yet. The best is to change the owner tag under the [DeleteOnCopy] to %username% which will restore the folder names to what they should be on the next session. You can also change the personalised name tag but this effects what the documents folder is called on the new start menu in Vista http://www.xs4all.nl/~hwiegman/desktopini.html desktop.ini [DeleteOnCopy] Owner=username or foldername Personalized=5 PersonalizedName=Documents Here is MS's rather unhelpful ideas on the subject http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947222 Edited June 8, 2009 by SYNACK 1
Nick_Parker Posted June 8, 2009 Author Posted June 8, 2009 Thanks Ric_, after much swearing, I'd figured that out, but if you look at the picture I attached in the above post, that command runs and completes correctly, but it doesn't seem to change the paths and it still tries to Sync with the FileServer. Just a thought, the command runs and Completes Successfully, but it still tries to Synchronize with the old server, then what is the command actually doing?
k-strider Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 you could try using File server Resource manager File Screening to block the writing of desktop.ini ?
Iain Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 Just a thought, are the offline folders assigned administratively via Group Policy? If so, have you updated the paths in the GPO? Iain.
Nick_Parker Posted June 8, 2009 Author Posted June 8, 2009 Hi Iain, No, their Home Folders as set via Active Directory and then GPs are set to map their My Documents to %HOMESHARE%%HOMEPATH% The mapping of their home drives and my documents is working fine, just offline files is still trying to synchronize with the old server.
Iain Posted June 8, 2009 Posted June 8, 2009 What I meant was, how were the folders/files that are trying to synchronise assigned as offline files/folders? Did the users of the laptops set them themselves (Right Click->Make Available Offline) or was it set via group policy (Administrative Templates->Network->Offline Files->Administratively Assigned Offline Files)? If set via Group Policy, this may be overwriting any changes made by csccmd.exe. Of course, I could be completely wrong! Iain.
Nick_Parker Posted June 9, 2009 Author Posted June 9, 2009 AAAH! I'm having to goto every single laptop and manually move any work they did from their offline files to their new Home Folder, disable Offline Files and then create a new Sync... and even then, it still tries to sync to their old home drive... No wonder so many people stay away from Synchronization/Offline Files
Nick_Parker Posted June 10, 2009 Author Posted June 10, 2009 Hooray - Problem solved! None of the users had read access into the share root i.e. \\StorageServer\Staff Folders\ only to their own folders within that i.e. \\StorageServer\Staff Folders\Username (Which creates another problem - but that's something for a different thread) So i've given them all read access and then the csccmd command works! Next question tho, even tho the synchronization has now successfully moved all the files to the new share, it still picks up the old server has being offline even tho it doesn't have any files to synchronize (As per picture). Is there anyway I can remove this link?
SYNACK Posted June 10, 2009 Posted June 10, 2009 XPs offline files system is quite primative in comparison to Vista's and so there is no direct way that I know of to get rid of this for an individual server other than resetting the whole offline files cache on each laptop. This will remove the old links and all files and then resync again from the start: How to re-initialize the offline files cache and database 1
plexer Posted October 1, 2009 Posted October 1, 2009 Just found this thread and allthough you've probably fixed it by reinitializing the cache I'm sure there is also a delete command available in the csccmd tool. There was a v1 and a 1.1 I think it was that was only available from Microsoft support for some reason. The later version had some extra commands available. Ben 1
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